HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

Background:

Sweden's efforts to reduce sulfur dioxide -- with a decrease in emissions of more than seventy percent since 1970 -- and other particulates and gases that contribute to acid rain are a model for other nations, communities, and individuals to follow. The efforts include emissions controls on vehicles and factories, cleaner power plants, household and industrial recycling, and increased exploitation of non-fossil-fuel energy sources.

In their daily lives, the Swedish people drive cars with emissions controls, use energy-efficient appliances, live in energy-conserving homes, and recycle household and industrial materials. We filmed Lynn Redgrave in a mass-produced home with exceptional energy-saving features. She visits with the father and two children, who are aware of and actively involved in everyday conservation measures. We also filmed in a solar village above 58 degrees latitude, where the houses meet their heat and hot water needs by solar alone for five months each year. At Karlstad, we filmed one of the world's cleanest garbage-to-fuel plants. The plant separates and recycles much of its input, and burns the remainder for energy. Co-generated steam from the plant provides hot water and space heating for 60,000 people in the area. An adjoining landfill feeds a biogas system for additional energy.

Sweden is leading the way with sulfur dioxide emissions. In the last eight years the country has halved the emissions. Its plan of action calls for a final reduction of 80% by 1995. Whereas the Swedish contribution to sulfur dioxide deposition over Sweden was 25% of the total before reductions began, it is now only 15%. In 1983, the emissions of sulfur in Sweden were less than 300,000 tons, having been reduced by two-thirds since 1970. Nitrogen oxides on the other hand have only diminished marginally; the total emissions in 1983 being 290,000 as compared with 302,000 tons in 1970. The switch to the use of low sulfur fuel, energy conservation, changing to other forms of energy, and making use of the surplus heat from district heating plants has helped to reduce sulfur emissions.

Methods in use (and commercially available) to control emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides with desulfurization work by: cleaning the fuels prior to combustion; combustion techniques; and, treatment of the flue gases. Wet flue gas desulfurization, for example, can remove up to 95% of SOx from the flue gas. Cost of combustion modifications are generally less than 1% of the total power plant capital cost. Nitrogen oxides, formed from the nitrogen in the fuel and from nitrogen in the combustion air, can be reduced up to 50% with multistage burners compared with conventional burners. The formation of thermal NOx is dependent on the combustion temperature and processing time. Thus, by burning the fuel at a lower temperature (below 1,540oC) and shortening the processing time, the formation of nitrogen oxides can be suppressed.

The Swedish National Environment Board suggest special attention to prevent the transfer of pollution from one medium (atmosphere) to another (water or soil), such as with production of a waste slurry or other pollutants created by some desulfurization technologies. Low waste desulfurization technologies and those producing useful by-products are available. Some desulfurization technologies can reduce the emissions of heavy metals, chlorides and fluorides in addition to SOx and NOx emissions. Twenty nations comprising the 30% club, initiated by Sweden, have now undertaken to reduce emissions by at least 30% by 1993-95. Several countries, including France, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and West Germany, have pledged reductions of sulfur-dioxide emissions by 40-50% by the middle of the nineties.

Sweden's extensive studies on the ecological effects of acid deposition indicate that acidification is one of the most serious environmental problems now confronting the industrialized countries. They fear acidification of ground water has increased the danger of direct harm to human health, and that nitrogen oxides are a threat not only to the environment but also to human health. Forest damage has accelerated markedly in Sweden in the last three years. All nuclear power is to be phased out in Sweden by 2010, but coal is not seen as an alternative for generating electricity. Coal is viewed as far too hazardous on account of danger of acidification and damage to the forests as well as the problem of carbon dioxide. Nor does it think hydroelectric power should be expanded beyond an already agreed upon limit based upon that necessary for protection of rivers.

What The Swedish National Environment Board proposes is giving special attention to using recurring types of energy, such as wind and forest growth, in combination with more efficient combustion and energy conservation in general.(Sweden)

Documentation:

Documented in Progam II of HORIZON's One Second Before Sunrise, a Search for Solutions

Submitted by:

HORIZON International

TELEVISION PROGRAM AVAILABLE ONLINE:

This project is documented in HORIZON International's film "One Second Before Sunrise", Program 2,

The television program is available for viewing and downloading at http://www.horizoninternationaltv.org/.

Cooperating for Clean Air: A co-production with SVTV2, Swedish Television, Produced with the assistance of Polish Television.

Remarkable efforts of pollution control and energy efficiency from a power plant clean enough to be in the heart of Stockholm to solar villages near the Arctic Circle are highlighted, serving as examples for factories and homes. The story features Christer Ågren, a biology teacher who led Sweden's campaign against acid precipitation and global climate change for more than 15 years.
Sweden_background.wmv
Goteborgpollution_reduction.wmv
Goteborg_and_Stockholm.wmv
Energy_reduction_and_close.wmv